Nintendo's making two major changes to its $80 Super Nintendo to make it easier to buy
Nintendo is dramatically increasing supply of its upcoming Super NES Classic Edition console, the $80 miniature version of the original Super Nintendo console that plays 21 built-in games. Moreover, the Japanese company is pushing back the Super NES Classic Edition production end date from 2017 to an unknown point in 2018.
The new supply plans were announced on Tuesday morning, and appear to be a direct response to the many issues people have had trying to pre-order the Super NES Classic Edition.
"More units of Super NES Classic Edition will ship on its September 29 launch day in the US than were shipped of NES Classic Edition all last year, with subsequent shipments arriving in stores regularly," Nintendo said in a press release. "Fans have shown their unbridled enthusiasm for these Classic Edition systems, so Nintendo is working to put many more of them on store shelves."
The news came alongside the announcement that the NES Classic Edition - the $60 miniature Nintendo Entertainment System re-release that Nintendo made available for a limited time - will return to stores in summer 2018. The console was released in late 2016, and was subsequently discontinued in April 2017.
Perhaps most important of all from Tuesday's announcement is this short aside: "With subsequent shipments arriving in stores regularly." That means, beyond the initial shipments of the Super NES Classic Edition on September 29, an ongoing supply of the console will arrive in stores. Better yet: That supply will continue into 2018, past the holiday season.
It remains unlikely that it'll be easy to find the Super Nintendo this holiday, but it sounds like Nintendo is making a major effort to make it somewhat more doable. There's no indication that another pre-order opportunity will happen before September 29; a Nintendo representative didn't respond to a request for comment as of publishing.